“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

All during this time I was working at the local art gallery in the afternoons. Mornings I spent on my ESP book, writing up the results of our experiments. We still hadn’t told anyone what we were doing, except our friend, Bill. In fact few of our friends even knew what we were up to until the book was out. Now I wonder why we were so secretive, but at the time it seemed much better to keep the world with all of its questions out. We had enough of our own to consider.

The session began as usual, with no hint of the voice changes that would occur. I’d like to mention here that by now we had read several books on extrasensory perception, but still hadn’t come across anything about voice communication. We’d read about the Patience Worth case, where a Mrs. Curren produced novels and poetry through the Ouija board and automatic writing, but we were completely unfamiliar with the idea of anyone’s speaking for another personality. It had never occurred to either of us that my voice might change in any way.

Rob asked for a break, but then he urged me to end the session before my voice gave out. I knew that he was concerned about me, but also tremendously interested in the material Seth had been giving. Besides this, as Seth, I had been extremely active, making funny remarks now and then to break up pages of serious monologue. The sense of another independent personality was stronger than it had ever been, and so I decided to continue. By now it was after 10:30. While we were talking, Rob had wondered aloud about the meaning of time; when we resumed, Seth started discussing this question.

Rob asked several other questions, and the two of them, Rob and Seth, chatted back and forth for three quarters of an hour. About the voice, Seth said: “Ruburt’s voice is an experiment. The immediacy of our sessions would be enhanced if more of my personality could come through. I could go on happily, you might say blithely, for hours, but I shall not. I am not some old fogy. Now and then old Frank Withers comes through simply because he was the latest independent materialization and is used to taking things upon himself. I have not assimilated him completely, but you can believe me, I intend to.”

Here Rob started laughing again. Seth had spoken jovially but not maliciously about Frank Withers. The tone of his voice and broad smile softened the actual words spoken. Rob made a comment about Seth’s attitude and Seth said, “I’m afraid I haven’t learned humility yet. On the other hand, you knew me before I knew Frank Withers, and my vanity then was astounding. You were quite vain yourself, and as a woman, you certainly put your present wife to shame as far as vanity is concerned.”

The impression Rob got from the voice, gestures, and manner was that of an energetic, educated gentleman of the “old school,” in his sixties perhaps, extraordinarily intelligent but aware of his own foibles—a man with a highly developed yet old-fashioned sense of humor. As Seth I touched a begonia plant (one of my favorites) and said, “I like Jane’s plant. Green things are a touchstone of your existence. You notice that earlier I used the term ‘plane’ rather than ‘planet,’ because you do not have the whole kettle to yourself. …

“I fear that as a man’s voice, Jane will sound rather unmelodious. I do not have the voice of an angel by any means, but neither do I sound like an asexual eunuch, which is all I’ve been able to make her sound like tonight … and Ruburt, if you want a cigarette, get one. She’s been walking around with a match in her hand for the last ten minutes.”

I don’t recall any of this, but according to Rob I then got a cigarette and sipped a glass of wine. “If I could have a glass of wine with you and enjoy it, I would. If you want to talk for a few moments without the necessity of taking notes, do so. I’ll certainly last as long as Ruburt will, and a lot longer. And if ever your wife’s features change some night as we talk, I suggest you do not mention it to her until the end of the session.”

Seth went on until past midnight. The remark about the change in my features was included in the notes, of course, but it was otherwise forgotten until a year later when it was brought rather forcibly to mind. When the session was over, my own voice was still fresh and clear, with no trace of the earlier difficulties. I wasn’t even tired.

We didn’t realize either that the emergence of the Seth voice completed the psychic structure through which we would receive the Seth Material, and through which Seth’s personality would express itself. From this session on, there was always some voice change during sessions, but the deep booming tones were the exception rather than the rule for some time to come. On occasion there is the sense of really tremendous power behind the voice; and my own voice is never strained. Much later, Seth told us that this psychic energy can be translated into sound like this, or it can be used for other purposes. Now when Seth gives clairvoyant material, for example, the voice is seldom loud. The energy is used to gather the data instead. (As you will see later in this book, that energy can also be a springboard into other dimensions.)

Talk about psychic explosions! Our first Ouija board session had been on December 2, 1963. By the end of January we had twenty sessions and some 230 pages of typewritten material. We knew that the voice change was significant, of course, but we didn’t realize that the power behind the voice was the more important issue. We saw that the sessions had a kind of order, but its significance escaped us. Actually, the structure provided continuity and stability, but also was flexible enough to nurture latent developments of which we were then completely unaware. Within it my own training as a medium would take place safely.

At this point, there were several courses we could have taken. We could have told no one what was happening, we could have contacted a spiritualist group or we could have informed the parapsychologists. We definitely decided not to tell any of our friends or relatives, at least for the time being. The spiritualist groups would have been out in any case, because of my views at the time on religion in general. But the ESP books we’d read all advised that anyone having such experiences contact a qualified psychologist or parapsychologist.

I guess I’d do the same thing if I had it to do over. But I’m not sure.

The next few chapters will deal with our efforts to be “scientifically responsible,” to “test” Seth for ESP. We didn’t really come to any overall decision, but I think that I was driven by the need to make all of this intellectually or academically legitimate. It was, of course—but I had a lot to learn.